Jim O'Keeffe
Question:648 Deputy Jim O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of persons committed to prison for non-payment of fines in each of the years 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. [1936/10]
View answerTuesday, 19 January 2010
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Written answers
A breakdown of the number of persons committed to prison solely for non-payment of fines for each of the years 2006, 2007, 2008 is set out in the following table:
|
Year |
Number of Persons |
|
2006 |
1,089 |
|
2007 |
1,335 |
|
2008 |
2,154 |
|
2009 (to 31/10/2009) |
3,366 |
The complete figure for 2009 will be available once the Annual Report of the Irish Prison Service for that year is finalised.
I can advise the Deputy that the number of such persons held in custody at any one time is a tiny fraction of the overall prisoner population. To illustrate this point, on 15 January, 2010 approximately 0.1 percent of the numbers in prison custody that day fell into this category.
I expect the number of such committals to fall substantially once the Fines Bill 2009 has been enacted.